In this paper, we identify a set of axioms that is necessary and sufficient for axiomatizing the reverse nested lottery contest proposed by Fu, Lu and Wang (2014), which is the "mirror image" of the conventional nested lottery contest of Clark and Riis (1996). This paper thus provides an...

Estimating bidders' risk aversion in auctions is a challenging problem because of identification issues. This paper takes advantage of bidding data from two auction designs to identify nonparametrically the bidders' utility function within a private value framework. In particular, ascending...

In a standard noisy contest, more competition (more contestants) leads to lower individual equilibrium effort. We show that when contestants can make pre-contest investment to enhance their competency, neither equilibrium investment nor individual effort is monotonic in the number of...

"This paper derives the effort-maximizing contest rule and the optimal endogenous entry in a context where potential participants bear fixed entry costs. The organizer is allowed to design the contest under a fixed budget with two strategic instruments: the value of the prize purse and a...